Time for Change
by Invader Zoya
Summary: Zim goes to help his Tallest when he hears they are being attacked by the Resisty. Zoya, Dib, and Gaz end up going along for the ride, but things don't turn out as expected. Instead of finding the Massive, they end up on the Explorer. Possible romances.


**Okey Dokey, new story! This will involve lots of OC's, right now, there only one, Zoya, the human/irken hybrid. So, I hope this will be decent. Enjoy my fellow rabid fans!**

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"My Tallest! I have devised my newest plan to conquer Earth!" Red winced as Zim's annoying voice grated on his ears. WHY did he have to keep on calling? Didn't he get that he and Purple HATED him?

But no, the small Irken continued jabbering about using vampire piggy's like he'd seen in some game to take over Earth. As if the Tallest cared about Zim's latest plan (and failure.)

"My Tallest! Hey, my Tallest! Are you listening to Zim?" this jarred Red from his furious musing and he coughed. "Uh, yeah Zim. Of course we are. Sounds great. Listen, uh-"

"LOOK, THE RESISTY IS FIRING AT US!" yelled Purple, dramatically pointing a claw and screaming. Red waved at the guy transmitting Zim's signal. "Turn it off! Time to blow em up!"

The screen went black and Red snickered. "_Nice_ Purple. You actually had a good idea." Purple nodded and went back to his soda.

Red sighed. That should keep any Zim calls away for another few days.

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"Hello! My Tallest! Respond to Zim!" Zim demanded at the staticy screen, pressing some buttons. The words _CONNECTION FAILURE, Try again later and have a nice day _flashed in red across the screen.

Zim gasped. "My Tallest are in need of the services of Zim!" Zim ran to the elevator, rising upwards towards the ground floor. "GIR!" he said into his transmitter, which popped out of his pack. GIR was in his dog costume and was running around with a toy airplane in his hand. "Vrooooooom wheeeeee!"

"GIR, I need you to meet my in my Voot Cruiser, understand." GIR stopped running and shook his head. "Noooo, ok!" Zim climbed out of the trash can and started to ascend upstairs to the rarely used second floor.

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Meanwhile, one ecstatic paranormal investigator, one disgruntled game playing girl, and a Human/Irken hybrid were standing beside Zim's Voot. Dib was attaching some sort of device to the side and was fiddling with a remote.

Zoya watched, vaguely interested. She had switched to her Irken self so that she could hear better, curled antenna on the alert. She didn't want to be caught now that Dib had dragged her here. She and Zim had managed a small, fragile trust and she didn't want to break it.

"With this remote control, I can make Zim's ship fly where ever I want it to!" announced Dib, mostly to himself as the device's claws sank into the ship, anchoring it in place. "Next time he decides to fly, I can crash it!"

Gaz was not impressed and continued playing her GS2. Zoya frowned. "Isn't that a little…extreme Dib? Zim could get hurt."

"That's the POINT Zoya. Who's side are you on?" said Dib, standing up. Zoya just scowled further. "Since I'm half human half Irken, I think I'm entitled to be both your friend AND Zim's. I'm neutral."

"Zim doesn't seem to appreciate your company though." Commented Dib, brushing dust off his trench coat. Zoya shrugged. "He's hard to get to sure. And fairly annoying and egotistical and keeps on trying to destroy my home planet. But he has heart in him Dib. And you two are more alike that you think."

_Oh god, that sounded cheesy._ Zoya thought, thinking back to when she'd decided she'd wanted to know more about Zim's past since he wouldn't talk about it. She'd searched the Irken equivalent of the Internet and had found out Zim was basically banished and hated. Poor guy. She hadn't had the heart to break it to him. Ignorant egotistical fool.

Dib just snorted. "Us, alike? You're kidding right?"

Zoya folded her arms. "Why did you insist I come anyway? I don't feel like sneaking around here around Zim's back."

"Well first, I figured I might need your assistance with installing this into Irken technology." Said Dib, fiddling with the remote.

"Couldn't even if I wanted to Big Head." Zoya smirked. "Ever since I found out I wasn't entirely human, Zim's been teaching me to read and write in Irken. He grumbles a lot about it. Apparently when a smeet is about two minutes old it is installed with a Pak and immediately filled with necessary information. However, I have no PAK. Not a physical one anyway. Even IF I had one, the information is only valid if I'm at most an Irken year old."

Gaz scowled at her GS2 and started mashing the buttons harder. "New boss?" Zoya inquired, peeking over her shoulder. The purple haired girl nodded, too concentrated on her battle to answer properly.

"How come she doesn't pummel _you_ when you talk to her when she's playing? She does that to me." Dib complained. "I guess I'm less annoying." Zoya shrugged.

Suddenly, Zoya stood straighter and frowned, antenna perking up. "Footsteps. Zim's, his walk is easy to pick out. He always walks like a soldier."

"Quick, in here!" said Dib, opening up a small compartment in the back of the Voot, which was similar to a car trunk in function, and hopping inside. Zoya climbed in, not wanting to be caught. Zim was probably looking for GIR, he rarely came up here.

Gaz sighed, pressed the rarely used pause button and closed her game, and squeezed in, closing the door behind them. It was pitch black inside, although Zoya's light blue Irken eyes could pick out the vague shapes of Dib and Gaz. It was also uncomfortably crowded.

"That's my FOOT you're sitting on!" hissed Gaz, shoved Dib aside, who banged into Zoya. "There's nowhere else to sit!" protested Dib. Zoya clamped a hand over Dib mouth. "Shut up. Zim's close by."

Dib couldn't hear anything himself, but he knew that Zoya's hearing was better in her Irken form because of the vibration sensitive antenna she sported. Seeing her as an Irken still made him shudder. He remembered that night when she'd revealed what she was- that was when she was new to her transformation. It had hurt her to manipulate her DNA into her alternate form.

She had trusted him. That was the reason he didn't consider her an enemy as well. She was a decent person. Although, she made him miss Tak. He shouldn't but he did. Other than Zoya, Tak had listened to him, been his friend. Until she'd tried to suck the Earths core out.

Now Dib could hear Zim's loud voice. He appeared to be briefing GIR about something. "GIR, we are to rescue my Tallest! They are under attack from the _horrible_ Resisty." Dib's eyes widened with glee. Maybe this _Resisty_ thing would annihilate the Massive.

Suddenly Zoya tensed. "Uh oh." She whispered. "Not good." "What said Dib. "If he means to go rescue his idiot leaders or whatever, he must be taking the Voot into space!"

Gaz swore under her breath. "Well, I'm getting out of here." She shoved at the door. But it didn't budge. Gaz tried again. Nothing.

Fear constricted Zoya's throat as she started pushing with Gaz. The door was locked. Now all three were pushing, but the door stayed firm. They were trapped.

"Crap." Zoya muttered. She had slight claustrophobia and now the dark and cramped surrounding was making her want to panic. What if there wasn't enough air? When would Zim bother to look in this trunk thing?

Dib felt the engines starting and he banged his fist against the side in frustration. Zoya leaned back, trying to breath as little as possible incase the space was airproof.

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Zim powered up the Voot, plotting his course from where the Massive had been when he'd called the Tallest. GIR was playing with a rubber piggy, squeezing it to make it squeak. Minimoose was also there, floating in a corner, watching.

The small green alien rubbed his hands together as the Voot took off. "The Tallest will praise me when I, Zim, come to save them fro the dreaded Resisty!"

Now the Voot was rising through the clouds. Water condensed on the windshield as the Voot flew higher.

In a matter of seconds, it cleared the clouds and was now in the limbo between the Earths atmosphere and space. Blue and black clashed and mixed together as the sun peeked around the corner of the blue planet.

All in all, pretty breath taking. But Zim wasn't there for sight seeing. Besides, anything to do with the dirt ball he was going to conquer was _not_ beautiful.

Zim now cleared the gravity that held the pitiful satellites in place as well as a ring of space junk. Now he was cruising along at a good 15000 miles per hour as he set out on his self appointed mission. The Massive hadn't been far, in fact, it had been nearby Pluto.

Zim stretched, calculating how long it would tae him to get there. Half an hour maybe. GIR was now having a conversation with Minimoose. They were debating how cows on fire could be related to the creation of the universe.

Silly servants thought Zim, shaking his head. Everyone knew that the universe was created when some giant flaming _ducks_ got out of hand, exploding. The following explosion of giant duck guts and brain meats hardened in the emptiness of space and fossilized into rocks. From there gravity took hold, making planets, stars, nebulas and the like.

Things soon got boring in a spaceship after a few minutes. So Zim put on some music to pass time. Fortunately he wasn't treated to the Doom song that GIR had sung on his way to Earth. Instead, he listened to a recording of some of Zoya's piano songs.

It wasn't true that the sound of the grand piano she played hurt his antenna. Well, it sort of had at first. The new sound had been strange and utterly different from what he was used to. On Irk, there was no need for "music."

However, there was a strange beauty in Earths music even Zim could acknowledge. He found he preferred more "classical" stuff as Zoya called it than the rock that Earth seemed obsessed with nowadays. Foolish pig smellies. Perhaps when he's conquered Earth it would be a planet for making music. He could introduce his race to it.

Zoya didn't know that Zim had secretly recorded some of her playing. Zim refused to admit he liked her compositions or piano and music in general. She denied it, but he thought she was rather good at playing and composing.

The particular song playing Zoya had named "Midnight Rain." This was the song she had been playing one of the first days Zim had met her, before she'd found out her heritage.

As the recording played, the songs grew progressively lively and happier. Still a melancholy note in it however. Zim had noted that as time had gone by, Zoya had seemed…happier. Happier to be with Zim. And the Dib stink.

It still irked him that she insisted on being BOTH their "friends." Zim had no need for a "friend." However he enjoyed her company because she would listen to his various plans to take over Earth. GIR and Minimoose were too stoopid to comprehend his genius. Zoya still thought his schemes were dumb, but it was much better than trying to explain them to GIR.

Possibly even more annoying was the fact she refused to take part in his plans. She was part Irken for Flirk's sake! She SHOULD be helping him! Yet, she did have that urge to destroy that was one of the basic traits for an Irken. Perhaps there was hope after all.

Zim looked out the windshield to find that they were already approaching Pluto. Half an hour had sure gone by fast. A quick scan showed the Massive was nowhere nearby.

Zim scowled. Now where was he supposed to go to help his Tallest?!

The Irken was so busy being annoyed at this fact that he didn't notice the considerably large hunk of rock hurtling their way.

GIR pressed his face to the window. "What's that?" the robot demanded, pointing at the asteroid. "Not now GIR!" said Zim, slamming his fist on the screen as though that would magically make the Massive appear.

Squeak!

"Not you too Minimoose!" Zim grumbled, pushing away the doomsday device, which had been jumping on his head in alarm. "But mastah-!"

"Quiet!" Zim demanded, as the asteroid got even closer, dangerously so.

There was a loud CRUNCH as the asteroid hit the side of the Voot, scraping off one of the boosters, making the ship spin wildly in circles. Zim yelled, pressing buttons at random, hoping something would work as the ship yielded to the small gravity of Pluto and hurtled towards the surface.

**Uh oh. Looks like they might be in trouble. I hope I kept everyone in character. I tried to bring out a more...thoughtful side of Zim? I hope it worked. Remeber, reviews taste yummy! FEED ME! *nom***


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